Headlines
Forecasts for a further build in U.S. inventories ease crude
Stronger greenback behind gold price decrease
Higher stockpiles correct copper price
Oil prices lost yesterday due to forecasts for a further build in U.S. crude stocks and slow economic recovery expectations.
Ahead of the OPEC meeting on Dec. 22, oil ministers from Libya, Kuwait, Algeria and Qatar have said that they believe the oil producers’ group will decide to keep its production quotas unchanged when they next meet. OPEC is widely expected to hold output steady when it meets in Luanda at the end of this month, rounding off a year of stable production policy and of robust oil prices.
Mexico reopened its main oil ports on Sunday after a cold front in the Gulf of Mexico shuttered them over the weekend, the government said.
Nigeria is currently producing between 1.8 mln.b and 1.85 mln.b/d of crude oil plus 600 kb/d of condensate, the minister of state of petroleum said.
Russian exports of gasoline, gas oil and fuel oil rose in November from the previous month, as refinery production rebounded after seasonal turnarounds, preliminary data provided by the Energy Ministry showed. Russia exported 111200 t/d of gas oil in the first 25 days of November, up 17.4% from 94700 t/d in the first 28 days of October.
U.S. bank Goldman Sachs maintained its previous 90$/b 2010 price forecast for West Texas Intermediate crude futures, but predicted the NYMEX crude futures would rise to 110$/b in 2011, on rising demand from emerging markets.
U.S. retail gasoline prices increased half a penny over the last week, as drivers continued to see little change in fuel costs, the U.S. Energy Department said on Monday. The national price for regular unleaded gasoline was 2.63$/g, which was also up 94 USc from a year ago, the EIA said in its weekly survey of service stations.
The U.S. EIA may be the first to revise up its oil demand growth forecast for 2010 this week, but it is the group's first view of 2011 fundamentals that could garner the most attention.
